I hissed in pain as my eyes snapped open, my hands instantly moving to my head which had hit something hard. The first thing I felt was the bump forming, then I touched my ears which made me stop completely, one hand on the long white ear which I definitely didn’t have when I went to sleep. I slowly looked down to see my body, only to nearly scream when I saw that I wasn’t even human anymore before I tried to open my mouth and speak, only to find I couldn’t talk and quickly started looking around with a good bit of fear, shock, and worry.

        I tried standing up before I remembered, “Oh wait! No legs!” so standing was out of the question and I just tried to drag myself along with my odd arms, trying to see if Heather was nearby. I dragged myself through wherever it was I was at for about ten minutes, trying to find any sign of my friend when a familiar voice called out basically on top of me.

        “RAWR!”

“AHHHHHHHHH!” I won’t deny that I screamed like a girl when she did that, though I really didn’t notice that after I had jumped in fear I didn’t come back down, “What the hell?!”

        I looked down, seeing a fairly large avian creature holding its sides with its wide wings as it laughed its arrow-shaped head off. Its blue eyes were closed and close to tears from the laughter, its tri-tipped tail banging on the ground.

        “WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT YOU TERRIBLE PERSON!” I barked, blushing bright red from embarrassment as I glared down at her, “I know it’s you, Heather!”

“Wh-who else would do thahahat!!” my old friend laughed out. “I could tell it was you from a mile away! I just couldn’t help myself ahahaha!!!”

“Hardy-har-har laugh it up!” I grumbled, looking down only to realize I was floating, “How?!” I asked before realizing it was a terrible idea to do so, quickly falling face first onto the ground next to Heather, when I hit the ground it let out an audible thump and I groaned, the rest of my body touching the ground.

“Have a nice fall?” she asked me with a smirk, holding back another set of laughs.

I just moaned lowly in response, not wanting to me lest I manage to defy physics and hurt myself once more.

“Oh cheer up, Tommy,” Heather said, nudging my cheek. “There aren’t many out there that can say they’re a Latios.”

“...I shouldn’t be able to talk right now, going to guess telepathy?” I muttered, trying to steadfastly ignore the fact I was no longer human, “How did we even end up here?”

“I don’t know, but I get the feeling it’s your fault.” She nudged my nose with her wing. “It’s always your fault.”

“Ok now that’s not true! That time with the orange wasn’t me! I couldn’t have lodged it in the exhaust when I wasn’t even in town at the time! Everything else, yeah I can accept that.” I snorted, pushing myself off my chest.

“Still a weak alibi~,” she sing songed. She giggled as I huffed. “Anyway, we should probably find out where we are. Two legendary pokémon in a forest is usually not a good idea.”

“If we’re actually in a world of pokémon I hope you know we’re screwed,” I commented, trying to figure out how I was floating earlier, “If I can’t figure out my floating thing sometime soon you’re carrying me.”

“Well, I usually do, considering how lazy with school work you are,” she said with a victorious smirk.

“Yet I had higher grades than you.” I shot back, grinning.

“Who got the scholarship?” I hate that smugness of hers. Drives me crazy!

“Shut up, Miss Perfect.” I grumbled in response, climbing onto her back because I wasn’t able to figure out how to float again. I looked down once more and saw something that wasn't there before- the latiosite was on a small chain around my neck and it looked like the Soul Dew was around Heather’s, “New fashion statement with wearing the soul of a deceased Latios?” I snorted.

“Oh you know I look good.” My Lugia friend posed quite uh… quite risquely in front of me, trying to show off the Soul Dew.

A bright blush grew across my face, “Ok ok! You do! I don’t deny it!”

She giggled. “You. Are. Too. Easy.” Heather emphasized each word with a wing to my chest. “Now get hovering dragon-boy, we got movin’ to do.”

“I don’t know how to hover… I mean it’s not like I can learn how in ten minutes can I?” I snorted.

Then Heather got an idea. An awful idea. Heather got a terribly awful idea. “I know how you can learn.”

“I want to know yet I worry for my life.” I warily replied. Quickly, before I could do anything to stop her, Heather grabbed me with her wings and chucked me high into the sky.

“Fly or die, Tommy!”

“WHY DID I EVER INVITE YOU?!” I screamed as I flailed in the air, my wings helping me stay in the air as I slowly fell, and I mean slowly.

“Just for moments like that,” she laughed out. Why did my best friend have to enjoy making me miserable? Wait, the better question is: why the hell do I keep hanging out with her?!

“Youuuu… You… Ugh I can’t even think of a good word to describe what I think of you Heather.” I said as I actually managed to float again, sadly it was next to Heather rather than farther away, “...Don’t you dare do it again!”

“Alright, alright. No need to get all huffy. I would have caught you before you landed. I do actually care about you, remember?” She booped my nose with her wing before flapping into the air a few feet above the ground. “Now come on. Let’s find out where we are. Maybe there’s other pokémon.” She gasped loudly. “Maybe even Pikachu!” She giggled with fangirl glee.

I carefully got a grip on one of her legs, “You’re leading because I don’t know if I can do this right.”

“Fine, just watch where you’re looking. Don’t need you getting blood on my new fur… feathers… whatever Lugia’s have.”

“You know me well enough that I wouldn’t look!” I quickly said, blushing at what she was saying.

“That’s what you said before a certain stack of magazines fell out of your closet.”

“Oi! Those weren’t mine! It was a bloody college dorm and I was stuck with someone else in that room, all my stuff was under my bed!” I barked back at her, somewhat offended she thought they were mine.

“Uh huh. Suuuure, Tommy. Whatever you say. Now it’s only fair to warn you… I have no idea what I’m doing.” She took off speeding through the forest at high speeds, me hanging on for my life.

“WHY ARE YOU FLYING IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING?!” I screamed. Again I’m not ashamed to admit I screamed like a girl, though it seems like it’s becoming a trend here.

“Because it’s fun!” she laughed like a sugar-crazed nut. To and fro we weaved through the trees, most of the branches unfortunately smacking me and not her.

“YOU’RE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE! FLY ABOVE THE TREES!” I yelled, yelping each time I was hit, some cuts forming, mainly bruises though.

“I don’t wanna take the chance of being spotted, dweeb!”

After she called me a dweeb I started grumbling about getting tired of being hit by trees and climbed up her leg, being careful to not touch anything and then hugged myself to her back, “I’d rather not be hit by every tree in this forest.”

Further Heather flew, trying to avoid most of the foliage now. Soon enough, we saw a light up ahead, signaling the end of the forest. Though, Heather dropped to the ground before we got near it.

“Alright, I want to see a normal city and normal humans, but I doubt I’m that lucky. What do you think?” I said with a sigh.

“Let me see.” She poked her head out of the forest and pulled back a moment later, completely befuzzled. “I have no words for what I just saw.”

“Then find some words, what did you see?” I asked with a large amount of curiosity obvious in my voice.

“Remember that movie I made you watch when we were seven? The thing I was obsessed with all through elementary school?”

“Kinda? I don’t exactly remember stuff that far back…” I shrugged, vaguely remembering her obsession.

“Well, Tommy, welcome to the land of ponies,” she said, brushing back the leaves to unobstruct my view.

A horrified sound came from my throat, “No… No! Anywhere but here!”

A painfully bright town filled with multicolored ponies laid before us, some houses looking like candy and some being the brightest colors physically possible. The town seemed to give off a cheerful, happy aura that was slowly influencing both their moods almost like a virus. At least that’s what I think it looks and feels like.

“We’re in happy, rainbow, pony land my dear friend. May your worst nightmares become reality.” At least she was monotone about it… what little help it was.

All I could do was whimper in response to what she said.

“I wanna meet ‘em!”

“I’m going to be pulled along with this won’t I?” I groaned, dropping my head to where it laid on her back.

“Oh come, it can’t be that bad! There are dude ponies. Look! Those one’s are in bar brawl.... why are there ponies in a bar brawl?!”

“They are called stallions and I have no idea why! Why don’t we go break it up?” I suggested with a sigh.

“You expect us, college geeks who became pokemon, to stop a random bar brawl? The heck is wrong with you boy?”

“Well to be fair you look like a dragon right now and the ponies might stop fighting due to that fact, though I may just be suggesting this because you scare me Heather.” I grumbled.

“Since when is that news?” she snorted. “Let’s… let’s just keep moving. Maybe there’s some place on the outskirts we can hide out.”

“I thought you wanted to meet the ponies? Oh well. Maybe later?” I chuckled.

“If they’re gonna act completely like humans, I’m not sure they’re the ponies I wanna meet. I want the ones flowing with friendship, and happiness, and joy. You know? Shit like that.” Heather turned and started to fly parallel to the forest line.

“Well to be honest in my opinion nothing can be worse than humans.” I shrugged, “Our species does bad things.”

“Oh don’t be such misanthrope. You sound like that weird drifter kid a few years back.” She rolled her eyes and soon stopped at a small stream.

“Well we did good things too! Though really, instead of wasting their time making the nuclear bomb after we made the atomic bomb, they should have put the effort into working on other machines and such. Oh well, just my opinion.” I shrugged again.

Heather bent down to take a drink from the stream, sipping up the water. She let out a breath of relief from the the liquid refreshment. “Hey, I just realized something. If that was a town of ponies, what other kinds of creatures are here?”

“Hell if I know, dragons maybe?” I guessed, rolling off of her back to the side and floated slightly off the ground instead of hitting, taking a drink as well, “Ya know, if we were on Earth we would’ve gotten really sick from what we just did.”

“Must be new biology based on our avian abilities,” Heather said scientifically.

“I… Yeah I don’t know why you said it like that.” I muttered, “Besides, I don’t really think either of us really count as birds or something similar.”

“Well, I believe Lugia’s are actually flying types, so I’m a little more avian. You’re a dragon, so you might have a bit, but not much. But now for the big question, what do we do now?”

“Well… We could start by seeing if we can learn any of the attacks our new species would know, or we could go visit the town?” I said, not really sure what else we could do.

“Hmm… I have always wanted to try a certain one.” Lugia took in a deep breath then a ball of golden energy began to build in her open mouth. “Aeroblast!” She fired… right at me!!

“YOU TERRIBLE PERSON!” I screamed as I dived out of the way to avoid the attack. The beam cut through several of the trees, leaving a series of scorched holes deep into the forest.

“That was awesome!” she squeed with glee.

“For you maybe! You almost hit me!” I barked, glaring at Heather.

“Wuss.”

“So I’m a wuss for avoiding something that could have killed me or severely hurt me?” I said as I gestured to the trees.

“You’re a dragon type. Flying type moves don’t affect you.”

“No, Ground type moves don’t affect me. Flying type moves would do the same damage to me as say poison or steel.” I grumbled.

“Well sorry! I’m not that big a Pokénerd as you!”

“Clearly, otherwise you would’ve been more excited about when I gave you the Soul Dew, I mean that thing was an exact replica! Though I think it might be real now…” I shrugged, before looking around, “I wonder…” I said as I concentrated on a nearby rock, willing it to move. I cheered when I saw a faint aura surround it and lift it up before grinning and throwing the small rock at Heather.

“Ow!” she whined when it hit. “Don’t use Telekinesis on me! It’s rude!”

All I did was stick my tongue out at her in response.

“Ooh! You make me so mad!” Her wings glowed slightly before flapping them once at me. A massive burst of wind hit me and I was sent flying into the foliage.

“Yet you deal with me anyways~” I let out a laugh as I pulled myself out of the foliage.

She huffed and pouted. “Let’s just get something done before dark. I don’t wanna sleep outside. I hate camping.”

“Then lets go to the town of colorful ponies, surely nothing can go wrong there?” I said sarcastically, floating around the small clearing we were in.

“Did you really just tempt fate like that?”

“Did you not hear the sarcasm?!” I snorted, “But anyways let’s go back to that town…”

“Fine, but if something goes wrong it’s your fault.”

“I can accept that.” I shrugged, floating towards the town with Heather behind me.

“We are so lost,” Heather groaned. “And it’s all your fault, Tom.”

“How is this my fault?!” I snapped, turning my head to frown at her.

“Because you’re the one in front, stupid!” she fired back. “Heck, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t even be in this mess!”

“I thought you knew where we were going! But I refer to my former question for that second statement, how is that my fault?! I just bought two things and you bought that flute thing which I’ve yet to see around here.” I groaned, rubbing my hands- well, claws, down my face.

She looked sheepish for a moment, not bothering to look at me. “I… may have… kind of....” Heather slumped. “I dropped it when we arrived.”

“...That’s actually kinda sad, you were decent at playing the thing. I feel like that will come back to bite you though. Now, how do we find where we are, because I can’t float or levitate, whichever it is, very high yet.” I sighed, looking around at the various trees and plants before looking up at the sky and treetops.

“Why don’t we just ask for directions?” she ever-so-helpfully recommended.

“From who?” I snorted, trying to figure out if she was being sarcastic or not. I wasn’t having much success.

She pointed her wing up. “The pony sleeping on that cloud up there.”

I looked up at where she was pointing to see a rainbow maned pegasus, leaning slightly off a cloud, “...How does that even work? Clouds aren’t so-” I stopped abruptly as a drop of drool landed on my head, “I hate my luck.”

Heather stifled a chuckle. “Hey, I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t woken up on one. Now, put that brain to use for once and get her attention.”

I simply gave Heather a deadpan look before slowly picking up a small rock with the only move I could think of, Telekinesis. “Heh, maybe I could launch it like a bullet from a gun?”

“We want to ask for directions, not scare her to death or, worse, piss her off. You even try it and I’ll use that Whirlwind trick to shove you off a cliff.”

I remained silent for a moment before sighing, “You could, I don’t know, fly up and ask her? You’re the one who knows how to somehow fly here.”

“Maybe so, but you got us lost.”

“Could you just do it? I’ll find a way to pay you back later on if it works; even though I’ll likely regret this decision.” I asked, looking directly at Heather.

She gave me a very small glare before sighing. “I swear I have to do everything for you. It’s like you’re still a kid.” She started flapping her wings, slowly gaining altitude up to the cloud.

“I got stuck in a body completely different from my own! How does that not qualify for not knowing what to do?!” I shouted up at her… Which may have been a terribly stupid idea because I was speaking mentally.

“Because you’re you,” she shot back, just before reaching the cloud. “Okay… now how to do this? Um, I suppose the direct approach works. Miss?” I saw her gently prod the sleeping pony. “Miss, could you help us out for a moment?”

        One of the pony’s wings twitched slightly and she pulled her hoof in to scratch her chest.

        Heather looked a little annoyed at being ignored. “Miss?” she prodded a little harder. “I’m sorry for waking you, but we really need help.”

She weakly swatted at where she was being prodded with her hoof, saying something that sounded a lot like, “Five more minutes.”

“...Heavy sleeper? Or in this case ‘napper’?” I snorted, watching with a small amount of amusement.

“Stupid feathers,” Heather said to herself, but I could clearly hear her frustration. “Miss! Wake up!”

“Wah?” The pony grumbled sleepily as she slowly looked around before her eyes locked onto Heather, making her quickly wake up as she jumped back, “What the hay?!”

“Finally!” Heather sighed/groaned. “You’re are a hard pony to wake up, ya know that? Look, I’m sorry for doing that, but my friend and I need help.”

“How do I know you’re not lying and just trying to take me somewhere to eat me? Huh? How?” The pony narrowed her eyes at Heather, seeing the sharp teeth as she spoke.

“One, because I don’t eat things that talk. Two, I’m too tired to worry about food right now because we’ve been walking-slash-flying for hours. And finally, I’mma be honest with you here, honey, you do not look appetizing. Too colorful; be like having Skittles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bleych!”

“I still don’t believe you! What are these ‘Skittles’ you mentioned anyways?” The pony said, jumping from the main subject to what she was being compared to.

“I hereby vow that I will refer to that pony as Skittles in any future conversations.” I said in response to Heather, not realizing that Skittles could hear me as well.

“Huh? Who’s that?!” Skittles’ eyes narrowed as she looked around.

Heather looked down at me with a deadpan. “Smooth, laddie. Smooth. Now you freaked her out even more. We’re supposed to be trying to keep her calm so she can get us out of this forest. As I said earlier, we are NOT sleeping on the ground. I need a bed!”

Skittles looked over the edge, down at where I was waiting to wave up at her, before she looked back at Heather, “While I still don’t trust you, I guess I can understand that need… Just one thing what is that thing down there, ‘miss’ dragon?”

“Actually,  I’m a giant bird. He’s the dragon,” she corrected, pointing at me.

“Yup, hi.” I said, rolling my eyes at the turn in the conversation as I waved my claw...thing.

“...I don’t see it, he looks nothing like a dragon. I would know, I kicked one out of its cave after it started to cover the skies in smoke!” Skittles declared, somehow sitting on her hindlegs as she flexed her… Arms I guess.

“Hoo, we got a badass over here, Tommy-boy! Girl, you rock! And yeah, he’s a pretty lame dragon. Can’t even fly, how lame can you get?”

“I can hear everything through your ears right now Heather! I do not approve of you calling me lame!” I barked, before snorting at Heather’s first comment.

“Since when do I care about your approval, oh mister mighty-dragon-of-throwing-pebbles?” She looked at Skittles. “See what I have to put up with? Pitiful, ain’t it?”

“I refuse to cook the next meal you ask for because of this!” I replied, frowning with my arms… I guess they’d be arms, crossed.

“Is that a threat or a promise?” Skittles quipped, getting into the act.

“Ha! I love this girl already!”

“I hate you both!” I groaned.

“Huh? Girl?” Skittles blinked, looking at Heather with a raised brow before shaking her head slightly, “Oh yeah, I forgot, I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in all of Equestria!”

“Fastest flier? You got proof?” Heather dared. “Guinness got it marked down and everything?”

“Gonna ignore the egghead words you’re using. And hay yeah I’ve got proof! I’m the first pegasus to do the Rainboom in centuries!”

“...that sounds more like you made a clap of thunder,” Heather pointed out. “I mean, ‘rain’ ‘boom’? I can’t be the only one to have noticed this.”

“I- Huh. You know it does sound like that. Oh well, name isn’t gonna be changed any time soon. But the Rainboom is kinda my signature move, with it being a massive rainbow explosion and all.” Rainbow looked a bit contemplative at first before having the most smug smirk to be seen for miles around.

“Sounds more like breaking the sound barrier to me.” I snorted.

“Or the color barrier at least,” Heather said as she tried to process things. “Either way, it sounds cool, but back to the topic that started all this ‘fun’... I STILL NEED A FRIGGIN’ BED!!” Her scream nearly caused Rainbow to jump off the cloud.

“Jeez! Calm down! I’ll get you a bed or something!” Rainbow said, as she nervously looked at Heather.

Heather huffed for a moment before coming back to her ‘proper’ senses… or at least as proper as she can be. “Sorry, I just don’t do camping. It’s absolutely horrible!”

“I completely get you my mare- Err, bird?” Rainbow shrugged slightly and looked at the position of the sun before turning the complete opposite direction that Heather and I had been going.

“What about me? I can’t exactly fly.” I said, giving Heather a pleading look.

“Fine, you can ride with me, ya whiner,” Heather said with a goodnatured smirk. “And this time on my back instead of my leg.”

“Thank you.” I said dryly, “I appreciate the fact I will not have as much of a chance of falling on your back instead of your leg.”

“Just hop on,” she said as she landed down in front of me from the cloud.

I just nodded and quickly got onto her back, saying nothing.

“Well then, off to Ponyville! The town that witnesses disasters every other week!” Rainbow declared before starting to fly off, giving a slight gesture at us to hurry up.

“To infinity and beyond,” Heather said under her breath with a laugh as we flew after the prismatic blur.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2: Odd new town Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 18 Minutes